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Videos: savage beating by Israeli police in neighborhood where murdered teen was kidnapped

Submitted by Ali Abunimah on Fri, 07/04/2014 - 05:40

صور سرية لاعتداء وحشي على شبان القدس شعفاط " خاص فلسطين اليوم "

Update, 4 July: victim identified

The victim of the savage beatings seen in these videos has been identified as 15-year-old Palestinian American Tariq Abukhdeir, a cousin of recent lynching victim Muhammed Abu Khudair.

Tariq has since been arrested and held without charge and denied medical treatment, according to his family and the rights group Addameer.

Read Rania Khalek’s full report for The Electronic Intifada, including an interview with Tariq’s father.

Original Post

Two videos have emerged showing Israeli police brutally beating a Palestinian youth in the Shuafat neighborhood of eastern occupied Jerusalem.

The disturbing videos appear to show the same incident from different angles.

The area has been rocked by protests since local teenager Muhammad Abu Khudair was abducted and murdered early on Wednesday, in an apparent reprisal for the killing of three Israeli teenagers whose bodies were found in the occupied West Bank on Monday.

The footage at the top of this post was broadcast on the television channel Palestine Today. This video uploaded to YouTube appears to have been created by someone pointing a camera at a TV set tuned to Palestine Today.

Israeli police beating Palestinian in Shuafat, Jerusalem, 3 July 2014

The videos indeed show two men wearing riot gear vigorously kicking and beating another man who is lying on the ground in what looks like a construction site.

The men then drag their victim toward the street. The victim can be seen to have his head wrapped in a scarf, a tactic used by Palestinian youths to avoid identification and arrest by occupation forces.

The attackers are joined by a third assailant. One of the men appears to be carrying a hammer or similar object. They continue to kick their victim, who is slumped over, as they carry him toward a group of soldiers or police and men wearing plain clothes and black face masks.

Many injured

Red Crescent medics said 170 Palestinians were injured since Monday, including three with live bullets, Ma’an News Agency reported.

Dozens were injured by rubber bullets, including six journalists, and three people suffered fractures after being assaulted by Israeli police officers, Ma’an News Agency added.

The brutal beating caught on video is reminiscent of an indelible image of a similar attack on a young Palestinian during the first intifada in the late 1980s.

I have read about "rubber bullets," "rubber coated bullets," and "rubber coated steel bullets." When I read these words, I suspect the worst, i.e., bullets that have been coated with rubber to prevent them from bounding off buildings and hitting those who fired them.